<div>A red-shirt activist urged that his case must not be tried by a military court since the crime was committed before the coup makers’ order was issued to have lèse majesté cases tried by military courts.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Thanat Thanawatcharanon, aka Tom Dundee, a country singer-turned-red-shirt activist, who was charged with lèse majesté, has sent a letter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to help transfer his case to the criminal court.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Among other reasons, he said his alleged lèse majesté speech was delivered in June 2013 whil </div>

<p><a href="http://www.khaosodenglish.com/">Khaosod English</a>:&nbsp;A witness of the deadly military crackdown on Redshirt protesters in 2010 emerged from six days of military detention today, a day after the junta denied any involvement in her arrest.</p> <p>Nattathida Meewangpla, 36, was arrested at her residence in Samut Prakarn by five soldiers on 11 March and had been detained in communicado since.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Thai authorities ordered the eviction of the villagers allegedly encroaching on public land and threatened to detain them if they did not comply, citing law and order as a justification. Meanwhile, the villagers said that the authorities were acting in the interests of an oil palm business.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The military court refused to detain the four anti-junta activists charged with violating junta’s public gathering ban after the police filed charges against them.</p> <p dir="ltr">The Bangkok’s Military Court at 6.30pm on Monday denied the custody request submitted by the military prosecutor against the four anti-junta activists, reasoning that the four came to report to the police and there is no flight risk.</p>

<div> <div>The military has detained incommunicado for almost a week a female medic who is a key witness of the killing of red shirts at a Bangkok temple in 2010, said a human rights lawyer.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Winyat Chatmontree, a human rights lawyer from Free Thai Legal Aid (FTLA), on Monday told Prachatai that Nattatida Meewangpla, aka Wan, was taken from her house in Samut Prakan on 11 March. </div></div>

<p>After anti-junta activists urged the court of justice not to let military courts try civilians, the Thai junta responded by pointing out that special security measures are needed to maintain national security and warned activists that a planned rally might be viewed as creating a situation.</p> <p>Col Winthai Suwaree, the spokesperson of the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) on Friday stated that extra security measures are needed to maintain national security under the current volatile circumstances and that the standards of the military and civil courts are the same.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-d7b71f19-120d-adf9-fda6-1d887c26387c">The Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced a man who claimed to be a relative of Srirasmi Suwadee, former royal consort to the Crown Prince, to ten years in jail for lèse majesté and two other charges, but the jail term was halved because he pleaded guilty.</span></p>

<p>Pro-democracy activists charged with defying the Thai junta’s orders have submitted a statement to the court of justice, urging the judicial authorities not to let military courts try civilians. &nbsp;</p> <p>Four activists from&nbsp;<a href="http://www.prachatai.org/english/category/resistant-citizen">Resistant Citizen</a>, a pro-democracy activist group, on Thursday afternoon submitted a statement to Bangkok’s Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court to call for the court of justice to resist the junta’s orders in letting military courts try civilian defendants.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The junta-sponsored Public Assembly Bill should be amended to conform to Thailand’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, said Amnesty International (AI) Thailand.</p>

<p>A civil society organisation has urged police to step up measures to investigate the disappearance of a Karen human rights defender, pointing out that the case is being neglected.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/crcfpage">Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF)</a>, a civil society organisation which promotes and monitors human rights in Thailand, on Wednesday submitted a letter to Police Region 7 in order to urge the police to step up efforts in investigating the disappearance of Pollachi Rakchongcharoen, aka Billy, a Karen human rights activist who disappeared on 17 April 2014.</p>

<p>The junta cabinet has approved bills to privatise two prominent state universities, saying that there is no need to ask students since the bills were proposed by the universities and many other universities have already undergone the same process.</p>

<p>The authorities continue to suppress local activists and villagers who oppose petroleum exploration in villages in Thailand’s Northeast.</p> <p>According to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lawyercenter2014/posts/800328040017052?fref=nf">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)</a>, the military on 25 February brought Thawatchai Surat, a northeastern energy activist, to Buriram Muang Police Station and tried to force him to sign an agreement not to campaign against a petroleum operator.&nbsp; However, Thawatchai refused to sign any document. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>